The Stolen Hour
by Glowing Fish
Summary: When an entire hour of the space-time continuum disappears, the Doctor knows it is Code Mauve Plus.


Of all the places and times in the universe The Doctor could be, a late, late night in a jazz club was one of his favorites. In the top 1000 or so, at least. He was a Time Lord, and could see the large and small fluctuations of time, the constant interplay of possibilities and necessity that made up time. But listening to a jazz band improvise upon a theme, he realized that even he couldn't understand all the facts about flux and certainty in the time stream.

And plus, he looked like a real "hep cat", and knew that everyone else in the jazz club was admiring his neatly tied bow tie.

And while he was caught in this reverie, he looked up and saw that the digital clock on the wall had changed. Had changed quite a bit: it was an hour later than it should have been.

His eyebrows arched.

He asked the person across from him.

"What time is it?" the man, somewhat annoyed, flashed his watch.

The Doctor had to leave. He zig-zagged out of the club, bumping against patrons' tables. Normally he would regret being so rude, but he thought he had a Code Muave+ crisis on his hand.

He stumbled out on to the street, looking over digital readouts for the arrival times of buses, and clocks in shop windows. All had moved forwards.

Someone had stolen an hour.

He was very afraid: he knew that one of the locks on the Medusa Cascade was that it was just a split second out of synch with the rest of the cosmos, and that using this stolen time, it could be unlocked. He also knew that would put all of reality in danger. Or perhaps the missing time was due to a Silence Memory Bomb that they had set off on earth to erase some of their activities. Or perhaps all of time had shifted because of some great activity in the space time continuum, perhaps the Eternals were returning.

Whatever the case, he would need backup. Luckily, a vague memory returned, and he took out his sonic screwdriver, set it to a setting that floated up in his mind, and pressed the trigger. One second later, a TARDIS appeared. Two seconds later, a second TARDIS appeared, and out stepped two men he knew very well, because he was them. He had used a memory that he had subliminally planted to call himself to this location and time.

"I am sorry to bring us to this close of paradox, but we have a Code Mauve Plus. An entire hour has disappeared from the space-time continuum."

His Tenth Incarnation walked towards him slowly, gravely, and intoned:

"I am so, so sorry..."

"Oh, but I am sure we can get it back. Remember when we...um, well, sorry, can't give those away."

"Actually!" The Tenth Doctor said with a bright smile. "I was just apologizing for your fashion sense."

"Apologizing to who?" The Eleventh Doctor asked.

"Exactly!"

"Fantastic!" The Ninth Doctor exclaimed, although whether he was annoyed at his future selves for their squabbling, or just not fond of bow ties, was something neither the Tenth or the Eleventh could remember. The Eleventh thought maybe he was just looking forward to wearing a bow tie, but he didn't share that thought with himselves.

"This could be big...the three of us should be able to handle it, but, I do want to call my backup." He took the phone from his own TARDIS door and made a call, through space and time.

"It's River on the phone!" he said to his past selves. "Ah, but you don't know River. Lots of hair, very clever." Then he told River his problem. A rip in the space-time continuum that had swallowed an entire hour.

"Ah, sweetie, can you tell me the time there"

The Doctor answered in Old High Gallifreyan, giving temporal coordinates that were invariant in seven dimensions, but River cut him off:

"English would be fine, Sweetie."

"March 11th, 3:20 AM..."

River laughed

"Daylight Savings Time"

The Eleventh Doctor turned to his earlier selves, looking at their expectant faces.

"Well?" The Tenth Doctor asked.

The Eleventh Doctor realized he would be saved the trouble of explaining if he just used his captured Silence Tech to erase their memories, giving them only enough subliminal memories that he would know how to call them to this space so he could then have them leave, so as to avoid paradox. They went falling back into the Time Vortex to who-knows when, and he walked away, muttering to himself "Daylight Savings Time".


End file.
